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SolarWinds N-able to offer MSPs choice of new IT Services Management Platform

The company says it acquired a cloud based services management platform to provide a simpler and low cost pure play offering to the partners who want it, and that their partnerships with the major PSA vendors will continue.

Remote monitoring and management and service automation software provider SolarWinds N-able has announced the introduction of its SolarWinds N-able MSP Manager IT service management platform. The new offering is a rebranding of the solution acquired with the recent purchase of Austin-based Capzure and its technology.

“We are expecting big things out of this platform, and are extremely excited about the technology and solution we are going to market with,” said JP Jauvin, General Manager, SolarWinds N-able.

The company previously offered IT service management through strategic alliances with PSA vendors like ConnectWise and Autotask, and Jauvin indicated those agreements remain in force. At the same time, he said that MSPs had been asking for something that was simpler, as an alternative, and that the Capzure platform was acquired to provide this.

“The feedback from a multitude of MSPs has been that traditional PSA solutions are too complex or expensive, or too difficult to deploy or maintain,” Jauvin said. “They wanted the critical features to run their business and be easy to maintain – which including things like advanced help disks and ticketing and easy billing, all front-ended with a strong mobile platform for their field technicians.” Additional features include easy time-tracking, mobile applications for use across Android, iOS and Windows devices, a customer portal, scheduling, contract management, and integrated billing.

“This is all about alternatives in the market, and a powerful but simple solution that is easy to deploy and manage without an onerous overhead,” Jauvin said.

“We have a very large mutual customer base with ConnectWise and Autotask, and we don’t think this will affect those relationships,” Jauvin added. “We are still committed to integration with those platforms, but we wanted a complementary solution to them. We don’t view them as head on competitors to MSP Manager. We think there is room for a focused service management platform for SMB MSPs looking for an easy way to manage their business.”

Jauvin said Capzure became the logistical target for acquisition because while it is a mature technology, it was born in and built on the cloud.

“First and foremost, we wanted a cloud-based solution,” Jauvin said. “Many MSPs don’t want on-prem, but want a service management solution that is entirely cloud-based. Capzure’s cloud perspective made it a very unique solution. We were extremely impressed with the architecture of the platform, which is built on Azure with the latest technologies, and is very elastic. It’s a platform we are confident we will grow on and will scale.”

The Capzure acquisition was not made public at the time, and is a very secondary part of the present announcement compared to the platform itself.

“We didn’t specifically make an announcement around the acquisition, because we wanted to be able to announce we were going to market with a cohesive story that fit with the rest of the portfolio,” Jauvin said. “We didn’t want to make a big announcement, and then not have anything be visible for months. We wanted to hold off until we had a concrete product branding strategy.”

The company is not disclosing the financials around this deal. They did however indicate that all the Capzure personnel made the transition to SolarWinds N-able and have been successfully integrated.

“The initial feedback from our MSPs has been very positive,” Jauvin said.